Samuel Teel Ellis, Jr. ("S.T.") was born in 1915 to parents Samuel Teel Ellis, Sr. and Mabel Genevieve North Ellis. His father was a bank cashier in Napoleon, Missouri, and lost everything to the Great Depression of 1929. S.T. and his brother, Ed, worked a paper route as teens to contribute money to the family during the depression. S.T. was impressed with a man he met who was a musician, and S.T. saved some of his paper route money and eventually bought a used saxophone. He never had a music lesson, but taught himself to play, and eventually he played with the big bands. By playing his music, he earned money to put himself through college and medical school during and after the Depression, graduating from Washington University Medical School in St. Louis in 1942.
Dr. Sam volunteered for service in WWII. Recruiters told him he didn't have to go because he had a physical abnormality (flat feet!), but he insisted on going. He served in Patton's 6th Armored Division, 15th Tank Battalion, and as a physician in M.A.S.H. units, he treated many wounded soldiers from the front lines around Europe.
Dr. Sam received a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars after his jeep was blown up over a land mine east of Orleans in 1944. In my younger days, I was always puzzled by Daddy's refusal to discuss or display those medals, but as time progressed, I realized that true heroes are most often the quiet ones.
Daddy was quite a story-teller (especially about General Patton), and for many years, his family and friends encouraged him to write a book. Eventually he did write an autobiography that was published in 1978, just a few weeks before his death in an automobile accident. He spoke and wrote about wanting his children to be able to know him on a level that he never really knew his own father, and that was his purpose for writing the book. Just prior to his death, he presented each of his twelve living children with an autographed copy of his autobiography, and we've each referred repeatedly to his written words during those times when we've wondered, "What would Daddy do?".
Mary Pat Ellis Daviet
Greeley, Colorado
4th daughter, 6th child of Samuel T. Ellis, Jr.
[email protected]
Dr. Sam volunteered for service in WWII. Recruiters told him he didn't have to go because he had a physical abnormality (flat feet!), but he insisted on going. He served in Patton's 6th Armored Division, 15th Tank Battalion, and as a physician in M.A.S.H. units, he treated many wounded soldiers from the front lines around Europe.
Dr. Sam received a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars after his jeep was blown up over a land mine east of Orleans in 1944. In my younger days, I was always puzzled by Daddy's refusal to discuss or display those medals, but as time progressed, I realized that true heroes are most often the quiet ones.
Daddy was quite a story-teller (especially about General Patton), and for many years, his family and friends encouraged him to write a book. Eventually he did write an autobiography that was published in 1978, just a few weeks before his death in an automobile accident. He spoke and wrote about wanting his children to be able to know him on a level that he never really knew his own father, and that was his purpose for writing the book. Just prior to his death, he presented each of his twelve living children with an autographed copy of his autobiography, and we've each referred repeatedly to his written words during those times when we've wondered, "What would Daddy do?".
Mary Pat Ellis Daviet
Greeley, Colorado
4th daughter, 6th child of Samuel T. Ellis, Jr.
[email protected]
Samuel Teel Ellis, Jr. ("S.T.") was born in 1915 to parents Samuel Teel Ellis, Sr. and Mabel Genevieve North Ellis. His father was a bank cashier in Napoleon, Missouri, and lost everything to the Great Depression of 1929. S.T. and his brother, Ed, worked a paper route as teens to contribute money to the family during the depression. S.T. was impressed with a man he met who was a musician, and S.T. saved some of his paper route money and eventually bought a used saxophone. He never had a music lesson, but taught himself to play, and eventually he played with the big bands. By playing his music, he earned money to put himself through college and medical school during and after the Depression, graduating from Washington University Medical School in St. Louis in 1942.
Dr. Sam volunteered for service in WWII. Recruiters told him he didn't have to go because he had a physical abnormality (flat feet!), but he insisted on going. He served in Patton's 6th Armored Division, 15th Tank Battalion, and as a physician in M.A.S.H. units, he treated many wounded soldiers from the front lines around Europe.
Dr. Sam received a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars after his jeep was blown up over a land mine east of Orleans in 1944. In my younger days, I was always puzzled by Daddy's refusal to discuss or display those medals, but as time progressed, I realized that true heroes are most often the quiet ones.
Daddy was quite a story-teller (especially about General Patton), and for many years, his family and friends encouraged him to write a book. Eventually he did write an autobiography that was published in 1978, just a few weeks before his death in an automobile accident. He spoke and wrote about wanting his children to be able to know him on a level that he never really knew his own father, and that was his purpose for writing the book. Just prior to his death, he presented each of his twelve living children with an autographed copy of his autobiography, and we've each referred repeatedly to his written words during those times when we've wondered, "What would Daddy do?".
Mary Pat Ellis Daviet
Greeley, Colorado
4th daughter, 6th child of Samuel T. Ellis, Jr.
[email protected]
Dr. Sam volunteered for service in WWII. Recruiters told him he didn't have to go because he had a physical abnormality (flat feet!), but he insisted on going. He served in Patton's 6th Armored Division, 15th Tank Battalion, and as a physician in M.A.S.H. units, he treated many wounded soldiers from the front lines around Europe.
Dr. Sam received a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars after his jeep was blown up over a land mine east of Orleans in 1944. In my younger days, I was always puzzled by Daddy's refusal to discuss or display those medals, but as time progressed, I realized that true heroes are most often the quiet ones.
Daddy was quite a story-teller (especially about General Patton), and for many years, his family and friends encouraged him to write a book. Eventually he did write an autobiography that was published in 1978, just a few weeks before his death in an automobile accident. He spoke and wrote about wanting his children to be able to know him on a level that he never really knew his own father, and that was his purpose for writing the book. Just prior to his death, he presented each of his twelve living children with an autographed copy of his autobiography, and we've each referred repeatedly to his written words during those times when we've wondered, "What would Daddy do?".
Mary Pat Ellis Daviet
Greeley, Colorado
4th daughter, 6th child of Samuel T. Ellis, Jr.
[email protected]
